Elizabeth Kurtz has taken her small son and fled her ex-husband and his mother after finding a file of explosive material incriminating the family. Although the wealthy family employs a detective agency to find her, she manages to elude them. When Elizabeth finally contacts Barbara Holloway for help, the defense attorney finds the woman dead.

Sleight of Hand: A Barbara Holloway Novel

When a seemingly simple case turns complicated, respected attorney Barbara Holloway must rethink her game plan. Gregarious Las Vegas entertainer and ex-con Wally Lederer claims he's turned his life around. But when Jay Wilkins, a childhood friend, accuses Wally of stealing a valuable artifact, it's up to Barbara to ferret out the truth. Wally swears he's innocent. But when a murder takes place and the police name Wally as their prime suspect, Barbara knows he is in serious trouble.

Cold Case: A Barbara Holloway Mystery

Controversial author and scholar David Etheridge is not the kind of company an aspiring politician wants to keep. But ambitious senator Robert McCrutchen has a history with Etheridge that he's desperately trying to keep under wraps: 22 years ago, both men were investigated in the still-unsolved death of a young coed.

The Unbidden Truth: A Barbara Holloway Novel

When Louise Braniff hands Barbara Holloway a large retainer and asks for complete anonymity, the Oregon attorney is both intrigued and suspicious. The woman, a respected music professor, is a member of a group that sponsors worthy causes involving women. And they want Barbara to defend Carol Fredricks, a gifted young pianist who stands accused of murdering the manager of a piano bar.

Clear and Convincing Proof: A Barbara Holloway Novel

Because he is poised to desecrate the dreams of so many, it's no surprise that somebody dares to stop him in cold blood. When David McIvey is murdered outside the clinic's doors, lawyer Barbara Holloway must use her razor-sharp instincts and take-no-prisoners attitude to create a defense for the two members of the clinic accused of his murder.

Heaven Is High: A Barbara Holloway Novel

Barbara Holloway is a low-key attorney in Eugene, Oregon, who left her father’s high-powered firm to handle small legal problems for local residents and ponder her next move. But while trying to sort out her own future, two people, desperate for help, show up on her doorstep: former pro football player Martin Owens and his wife, Binnie. Binnie, who is mute, met her husband when she sneaked aboard his boat while it was docked in Haiti and smuggled herself into the US.

Defense for the Devil: A Barbara Holloway Novel

Mitch Arno always meant bad news for the coastal town of Folsum, Oregon. When they ran him out of town 17 years ago, he left behind a wife with two daughters and a family that never wanted to see him again. When he returns, he brings trouble in the form of a lot of suspicious money. As Barbara attempts to counsel Mitch's wife about the money, a second form of trouble arrives: Mitch's corpse.

No Defense: A Barbara Holloway Novel

Barbara Holloway is a trial lawyer who tends to take on difficult cases, but this time it seems there's no defense at all. It appears that Vinny Jessup died when his car rolled over on a bad curve on Lookout Mountain. Then the sheriff finds the gunshot wound. With a large insurance policy as her motive, could his much younger wife have staged the death?

Malice Prepense: A Barbara Holloway Novel

When he was a kid, Teddy Wendover had an accident that left him stunted at the mental age of eight. Physically, he's six-foot-two and 28-years-old, but he acts and thinks just like a little boy. Could this big little boy be a killer?

Death of an Artist

In Kate Wilhelm’s latest crime novel, a small Oregon town is rocked by a wheels-within-wheels case of art, fraud, and murder. Silver Bay, Oregon, a small coastal resort town of under a thousand residents, is home to three generations of women: Marnie, the long-widowed owner of a small gift shop; Van, her granddaughter who is about to graduate from medical school; and Stef, mercurial and difficult, a brilliant artist who refuses to sell her work.

Whisper Her Name

Charlie didn’t want to take this case - he hated cases involving crazy wills - but when one of the new clients mentioned that the Bainbridge men are cursed, he knew resistance was hopeless: Constance could not resist confronting a curse. In a quiet college town in New Jersey, five million dollars in cashier’s checks lies hidden in a dead man’s house, and whoever finds the checks gets to keep it all. Four family members have four weeks before the house and its contents become the property of a small college. Soon two deaths by drowning from the past and another clear case of murder in the present complicate matters.

The Price of Silence

In a small town, everyone knows everyone else's business. But in Brindle, Oregon, there's a secret nobody wants to see. Todd Fielding, a newly married young woman, comes to Brindle for a job with the local newspaper, which plans to celebrate the town's centennial by printing photos and letters from the town's history. But the relics of the past hide a dark secret.

Seven Kinds of Death

Constance Leidl and Charlie Meiklejohn are an unlikely pair of detectives. He is a former arson detective; she is a psychologist. Together, the husband-and-wife team has a knack for unraveling a mystery. "Seven Kinds of Death" is a famous sculpture, but the name takes on new meaning when bodies start turning up at the creator's art colony.

Welcome, Chaos

When an obscure government agent from an anonymous department tried to force Lyle to spy on her mysterious neighbors, she resisted. But the first step had been taken in a life-and-death struggle involving the precarious balance of power that would shift if scientists could extend life for centuries.

Skeletons

Without a job or prospects, Lee Donne is relieved to be housesitting at her grandfather's isolated Oregon home. But her stay soon becomes a nightmare when she is tormented by strange and menacing noises at night. Determined to track down the haunting sounds, Lee discovers an intruder, and shocking photos that may link her grandfather to the Ku Klux Klan.

The Fullness of Time

Hiram Granville, a modern Leonardo, secured more than a thousand patents during his lifetime, often just ahead of others who had already been working on the same ideas. His son, John, an economics genius, never lost a cent in the stock market—or any other financial deal—and was investigated for insider trading on more than one occasion. Now Cat, a documentarian; her researcher, Mercy; and Cracker Jack, an electronics whiz, are doing a film about the Granville clan. What they find as they research the family is madness, suicide, and a frightening glimpse about what it means to peer into the future.

Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

When the first warm breeze of Doomsday came wafting over the Shenandoah Valley, the Sumners were ready. Using their enormous wealth, the family had forged an isolated post holocaust citadel. Their descendants would have everything they needed to raise food and do the scientific research necessary for survival. But the family was soon plagued by sterility, and the creation of clones offered the only answer.

Falsely Accused: The Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi Series, Book 8

In the eighth story of the popular Butch Karp legal thriller series, Karp and his crime-fighting wife, Marlene, struggle to protect the abused and wrongly accused from powerful enemies. This time, famed prosecutor Butch Karp is on the side of an unjustly accused plaintiff, the chief medical examiner of New York City, who was fired and accused of gross incompetence. Karp may be in private practice now, but he still knows the ins and outs of the New York City brass, and his investigation into the wrongful termination soon reveals rot that goes all the way to city hall.

Cold Betrayal: A Novel

Ali Reynolds's longtime friend and Taser-carrying nun, Sister Anselm, rushes to the bedside of a young pregnant woman hospitalized for severe injuries after she was hit by a car on a deserted Arizona highway. The girl had been running away from The Family, a polygamous cult with no patience for those who try to leave its ranks. Something about her strikes a chord in Sister Anselm, reminding her of a case she worked years before, when another young girl wasn't so lucky.

Dead Wrong: Joanna Brady Series, Book 12

Juggling a family and a career is never easy, and it's becoming a real challenge for Sheriff Joanna Brady. Coping with the impending delivery of her second child as well as a staff shortage, the last thing Joanna needs are two serious crimes.

Publisher's Summary

Elizabeth Kurtz has taken her small son and fled her ex-husband and his mother after finding a file of explosive material incriminating the family. Although the wealthy family employs a detective agency to find her, she manages to elude them.

Defense attorney Barbara Holloway has sought seclusion in a cabin on the Oregon coast, but her solitude is interrupted by a small boy who enlists her help with his unconscious mother. Once revived, the woman and her child disappear. Elizabeth Kurtz is again eluding searchers, and Barbara is accused of aiding and abetting a kidnapper. When Elizabeth finally contacts Barbara for help, Barbara finds the woman dead.

Barbara, while defending Elizabeth's housemate against murder charges, is accused of obstruction of justice and faces possible disbarment and prison. As she realizes the importance of the secret papers, she also realizes that her life is at risk as she takes on a killer.

This is the best in the Barbara Holloway series. Of course, its strength rests on the series - the characters that have remained vivid and true throughout each of the books (10?). If you have not read the others, you might want to get one or two of them first before reading this one. Otherwise, the story would lose its impact.

This was the best crafted and best written of the series. I paid attention to what Wilhelm told us, how she told us, and when she told us everything. Every element in this story has a purpose. She creates suspense and delivers suprises without them seeming contrived.

The characters have remined complex and constant throughout the entire series. Each of her characters was developed and woven into the series. Each book in the series relies on the characters that were introduced in earlier installments. Barbara Holloway is an especially complex person.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this series, and especially this installment.

This book was suspenseful and interesting. I was glad to see the character Barbara Hollaway recover from her stupidity in the prior book of the series. This was much better. Lots of suspense and interesting plot twists.

I am not sure if I can even finish listening to this book. The reader is horrible. She sets my nerves on end after 10 minutes. Her style is rushed and has no expression or different voices". Will NOT get another book read by her.

Would you recommend A Wrongful Death to your friends? Why or why not?

No. Reader is terrible.

Would you be willing to try another one of Carrington Macduffie’s performances?

Loved the book. I am a huge fan of Barbara Holloway and this book didn't dissappoint. The only things that I wasn't crazy about was part of the ending that left the reader hanging in regards to the main victim. Otherwise, I would highly recommend this book.

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